Pittman v. Home Owners' Loan Corp., 308 U.S. 21 (1939)

U.S. Supreme Court

Pittman v. Home Owners' Loan Corp., 308 U.S. 21 (1939)

Pittman v. Home Owners' Loan Corp.

No. 10

Argued October 12, 13, 1939

Decided November 6, 1939

308 U.S. 21

Syllabus

1. The Maryland tax on mortgages, graded according to the amount of the loan secured and imposed in addition to the ordinary registration fee as a condition to the recordation of the instrument, cannot be applied to a mortgage tendered for record by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation and securing one of its loans, in view of the provisions of the Home Owners' Loan Act, which declare the Corporation to be an instrumentality of the United States, and that its loans shall be exempt from all state and municipal taxes. Federal Land Bank v. Crosland,261 U. S. 374. P. 308 U. S. 29.

2. Assuming that the creation of the Home Owners' Loan Corporation was a constitutional exercise of the power of Congress, the activities of the Corporation through which the Government lawfully acts must be regarded as governmental functions and entitled to whatever immunity attaches to those functions when performed by the Government itself through its departments. P. 308 U. S. 32.

The power of Congress to create a corporation to facilitate the performance of governmental functions implies a power to protect the operations thus validly authorized, which comes within the range of the express power conferred by Const. Art. I, § 8, cl. 18, to make all laws necessary and proper for carrying into execution all powers vested by the Constitution in the Government. In the exercise of this power to protect, Congress has the dominant authority, which necessarily inheres in its action within the national field.

175 Md. 512, 2 A.2d 689, affirmed.

Certiorari, 306 U.S. 628, to review a judgment affirming the issuance of a mandamus by Baltimore City Court requiring the Clerk of the Superior Court of Baltimore to record a mortgage.

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